


Circumstances Change

by AngelWithAStory



Series: The Hildray Series [7]
Category: X-Ray & Vav (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Awkward Conversations, Drabble, F/M, First Meetings, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 13:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4669103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelWithAStory/pseuds/AngelWithAStory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray <i>hated</i> being the one to lock up. Especially since Gav had already left, promising to make it up to him.<br/>He hated having to clean the machines, wipe down the tables, put the chairs on the tables. Really, in general, he just hated this job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Circumstances Change

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xraynarvaez](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xraynarvaez/gifts).



> this is the final prompt I'll take a while but _damn_ it was a good one

Ray _hated_  being the one to lock up. Especially since Gav had already left, promising to make it up to him.

He hated having to clean the machines, wipe down the tables, put the chairs _on_  the tables. Really, in general, he just hated this job. But hey, it paid well enough to keep him clothed and fed and able to keep up on game releases (if he only bought one game every few months).

So far, he had wiped down the counters, cleaned out the _all_  the machines, and he was in the process of cleaning all the tables when he realised that there was actually someone else in the cafe with him. He saw someone still in a corner booth and frowned.

It was a woman (she must have been his age, maybe a little bit older), with purple hair and various books and empty mugs on the table around her. That wasn’t what made him pause; the woman was fast asleep.

Immediately he sympathised with her: he’d seen so many students come here to study and they either crashed or left the cafe too wired to be productive anymore. She just seemed to have gone down the first path.

Ray put down the cloth towel he was using on the table he was cleaning and walked over to her. The books surrounding her had complicated equations and words Ray wasn’t even sure he could _pronounce_ , let alone understand. Gently, Ray shook the woman’s shoulder.

“Hey, I’m closing up so you kind of have to go home now.” He said, not unkindly. The woman stirred and blinked a few times, rubbing her eyes under her glasses.

“Sorry, yeah, I’ll leave.” The woman said, beginning to pull her books together and put them in a backpack she had on the seat next to her.

“What were you studying for?” Ray asked, collecting the empty mugs to just dump in the sink to deal with in the morning.

“Hm? Oh, I was studying for my robotics class.” The woman said. “We have a major project coming up and we have to build and code a robot to do a specific task.” It didn’t seem that she was trying to brag, and more like she was just talking to talk.

“And you thought this place was a good place to study for it?” Ray asked.

“Well my apartment’s off limits right now.” The woman said. “And the campus library’s no good.”

“And this place has good muffins.” Ray said, holding up one as proof. The woman smiled. She probably found that gesture to be cute.

“That too.” She said, zipping up her backpack. Ray’s phone went off from its place on the counter and he quickly checked the screen. It was a text message from Gav.

‘ _Don’t come home yet. Date’s going well, if you know what I mean_.’

Ray took a deep breath and released it as a sigh. Typical. He just wanted to close up and go home, and now Gav made it so he couldn’t.

“Actually,” Ray said, turning to the girl. “Turns out my roommate’s brought his date back to our apartment, so… if you want to wait around until I’m done cleaning up, we could go to the diner down the block and kill some time.”

The woman seemed surprised, but not really in a bad way. She took a few seconds to think over the offer.

“Okay. I’ll take you up on that.” The woman said. “My name’s Hilda.”

“Cool, I’m Ray. People call me X-Ray.” Ray said, leaning on a table. He looked like he was trying to impress her, but acting like he wasn’t.

“What people?” Hilda asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You know, _people_.” Ray insisted, turning back to finish his cleaning.

“Well, _X-Ray_ , do you need any help with locking up?” Hilda asked.

“Nah, it won’t take long.” Ray said, shooting her a reassuring smile. Maybe his night wasn’t as much of a bust as he thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Want an easy way to make a friend? [private-doughnut.](http://private-doughnut.tumblr.com/)


End file.
